Voters Examining Candidates, Often to a Fault

Thursday

Dec 29, 2011 at 12:01 AMDec 30, 2011 at 10:03 PM

The traits and background of the Republican presidential hopefuls enter into the thinking of many voters in New Hampshire and Iowa.

DES MOINES — Jonathan Gabhart, a 21-year-old college student from Spencer, Iowa, is leaning toward voting for Ron Paul because of the Texas lawmaker’s unpolished speaking style — a “high-pitched, squirrelly voice,” as he put it. “He seems like a real person because of his eccentricities.”

Andy Schwaegler, a 45-year-old tree farmer from Orford, N.H., is drawn to Mitt Romney because the well-coiffed candidate reminds him of his father, a business executive. “It’s something about the way he carries himself,” Mr. Schwaegler said.

Nancy Weaver, a 60-year-old retiree in Grinnell, Iowa, favors Representative Michele Bachmann because the congresswoman raised 23 foster children. “That’s a huge endeavor for any man or woman,” she said.

By virtually all accounts, the 2012 presidential race was to hinge on a restless electorate’s overriding worry, the troubled American economy.

But in three dozen interviews across Iowa and New Hampshire over the past few days, voters readily acknowledged that their decisions would be driven as much by personal chemistry and biography as by political positions and policy.

They were hard-pressed to recall details of the candidates’ plans to reduce taxes, create jobs and shrink the government.

Yet they knew about the marriages and mannerisms, the faith and careers of the candidates, and they brimmed with unvarnished opinions about any trait that strikes them as admirable — or just as likely, annoying.

“It drives me crazy,” Rose Williams, a retired teacher in Bridgewater, N.H., said of Mr. Romney’s voice. “When he’s on TV or on a commercial, I put it on mute.”

Gut reactions have long guided how voters select their president, but the strong responses provoked by the large, disparate Republican field help explain why voters seem to flirt with one candidate after another, hunting for a comfortable fit in a time of uncertainty.

“Personality does matter,” said Michael Dee, a lawyer in West Des Moines. “Because this person is going to be on TV all the time as president.”

The emphasis on character and personality is not accidental; to some degree, candidates deliberately play up elements of their lives that appeal to conservative voters, especially when compared with the personal lives of their rivals.

Mr. Romney has rolled out a series of television commercials narrated by Ann, his wife of 42 years. Mrs. Bachmann rarely misses a chance to talk about raising her foster children. And Rick Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania, has put photographs of his seven children on political brochures, with this detail: “Rick and his wife, Karen, have home-schooled each of their children.”

That last fact was well known to Dwayne Kriegel, a postal carrier in Grinnell, who is backing Mr. Santorum in the caucus on Tuesday. “He’s passionate about his dedication to family values,” Mr. Kriegel said. “The others say what they think the voters want to hear, while he lives it.”

Those interviewed were equally as outspoken about what qualities repel them. Phil Dillingham, 62, a retired manager at Ford Motor Company who lives in Moultonborough, N.H., said he could never vote for Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, because of what he called the candidate’s swagger.

Eva Dunn, 60, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, has no patience for Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former governor of Utah. Her objection: his demeanor in the debates.

“He comes across as a preacher, and I just want to take his hands and tie them behind his back because he’s always pleading,” she said.

“Holier-than-thou,” Ms. Dunn added.

Several voters said they were heavily influenced by a single strand of the candidates’ lives that they felt had illuminated their character and values.

Harry Spain, 85, who lives in Belmont, N.H., said he was moved by the story of how Mr. Romney and his sons had rescued a family whose boat sank on the state’s Lake Winnipesaukee.

“It tells me he would get done what needs to be done at any moment,” Mr. Spain said.

After watching 13 debates and nearly a year of campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire, many voters described the candidates’ personalities in remarkably similar terms. They viewed Mr. Romney, for instance, as the handsome, strait-laced businessman; Newt Gingrich as a brilliant but volatile politician with “baggage”; Mr. Santorum as a deeply moral family man; and Mr. Paul as refreshingly blunt yet oddly out of sync.

Ann Szot, of Keene, N.H., said her husband “thinks Ron Paul looks like he should be sitting on a park bench feeding pigeons.” Yet he still plans to vote for him, she said.

With the exception of Mr. Paul’s views on foreign policy, voters tend not to see huge differences on major issues among the Republican candidates. That may encourage them to zero in on finer distinctions.

Again and again, voters pointed to the candidates’ personal lives as a guide to how they would lead the country. Mr. Gingrich’s two divorces, and his admission of adultery, gave pause to a number of people.

“You wonder in times if it will affect his judgment,” said Zack Pickard, 36, a software salesman in New Sharon, Iowa. “Are we going to be distracted by his social missteps? It’s a distraction. Your leader should not be distracted.”

Kimber Harmon, 54, who described herself as a homemaker in Hollis, N.H., favors Mr. Huntsman, a long-married father of seven, explicitly contrasting his personal life with that of Mr. Gingrich. “I’ve been married for 32 years,” she said. “It bothers me.”

Mr. Huntsman’s brood, she said, feels like a natural first family. “You’ve got to think of who you want to see greeting guests at the front door of the White House,” she said.

For candidates who have sometimes labored years over policy books and memoirs, stump speeches and sales pitches, campaigning for president means accepting seemingly whimsical judgments and serendipitous connections.

Lawrence Flint, of Newport, N.H., supports Mr. Huntsman, because of his family’s longtime financial support of the Senior Games, an Olympics-style event for those over 50, a favorite of Mr. Flint’s. “He is a very generous man,” said Mr. Flint, 65. “You can tell that he is concerned about people.”

Mr. Perry, meanwhile, has found a kindred spirit in William Borrebach, 64, a retired lawyer who lives in Center Sandwich, N.H.

After Mr. Perry’s memory lapse at one of the debates, Mr. Borrebach said that he could relate to the governor. “Man, I’ve had those myself all the time.”

Mr. Perry, he concluded, “is one of us.”

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